Halloween Special - Vegan Pumpkin Bread - Baking Partner Challenge #15

Come the month of October, it's festival time !! Dussera & Diwali here in India & the infamous Halloween in US. For me Halloween means kids in scary outfits & pumpkins carved in funny shapes ;) Actually I get reminded of the Harry Potter Halloween dinner scene :D Since pumpkin is such an inevitable part of Halloween, we Baking Partners decided to bake some Pumpkin bread for the occasion. So when Swathi announced the recipes & asked us to choose from among the three variants of pumpkin bread, my eyes & heart fell for the Vegan version. 

It is such a breeze recipe, just like a normal cake where in you combine all wet ingredients & dry ingredients separately & eventually mix them both & bake ! I was so much in love with the end result ! It was so soft & tender & tasty. I even took some to my send-off party (by the ladies gang ;)) back in Norway & all the ladies loved them. When they ask you for the recipe, you know that they too loved it to the core. So what you waiting for my pals, try this out soon & you too are gonna enjoy baking & eating them like us :)

Recipe Source: Here

I Took: 40 + 50 minutes

Serves: 1 loaf

I Used:

All purpose Flour	-	1 cup
Whole Wheat Flour	-	¾ cup
Dark Brown Sugar	-	1 cup (I used normal sugar)
Baking Soda	-	1 tsp
Baking Powder	-	½ tsp
Salt	-	½ tsp
Nutmeg	-	½ tsp
Cinnamon	-	½ tsp
Allspice	-	½ tsp
Cloves	-	¼ tsp
Pumpkin Purée	-	1 cup (Refer first 2 steps)
Oil	-	½ cup
Maple Syrup	-	3 tbsp ( I omitted this)
Water	-	3 tbsp
Walnuts or pepitas	-	½ cup - chopped (I used almonds)

The Way:

1. Peel the skin off the pumpkin & rinse them well. Cut them into big chunks and pressure cook or microwave with ½ cup water for 15 minutes
2. Allow them to cool. Then blender it to make a fine puree. If you want to remove the extra moisture, strain the puree using a cheese cloth. Set aside
3. For this recipe, you can also blend the spices along with the boiled pumpkin !
4. Preheat oven to 175 °C. Grease and flour a loaf pan
5. In a large bowl mix together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices (Nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves & allspice)
6. In a small bowl whisk together pumpkin, oil, maple syrup, and water
7. Add wet mixture to dry, combine until just moistened. The batter will be very thick, it is not a problem!
8. Fold in nuts and pour the batter into the prepared pan
9. Bake for about 45-50 minutes or until top is browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. It took 50 minutes for me
10. Allow it to cool for 20 minutes. Use a butter knife to gently loosen bread from sides of pan & then invert onto a cooling rack

Cheers,

Chitz

Wheat & Rye Bread - Scaled Flour Method - Scandinavian Bread - Baking Partner Challenge #8

Never in my life had I imagined that I would ever bake a loaf of bread. And little did I knew what was in store when I told Swathi that I wanted to join 'Baking Partners'. That I would have to bake a bread for my first challenge itself.. But it should say, it was lots of fun and even more of knowledge that I gained :) I am happy that I took the challenge and lived up to the first one. But I should admit that I was skeptical till the last moment of how I was going to pull this through.. Had a very busy two weeks that involved some travelling and a marathon of baking that I still was in dilemma deep inside, of how this is gonna work. 

So I woke up yesterday morning ready to bake.. But felt like the weather cheated on me. It was snowing like anything. Then I thought to myself 'This is the price you pay for procrastinating things.. See what happened coz u waited for the nth hour !!' It was shining pretty well for the past two weeks and little did I expect that it would snow. But no. This is not going to stop me. So I whipped up some hot chocolate and set off to work. 

For this month's challenge we were asked to choose from two different methods of bread baking. Tangzhong or Scaled Flour method. First is Asian and the second Scandinavian method of bread baking. I choose Scandinavian as I am residing in one presently and having tasted their bread often, I wanted to know if I could reproduce one :) The taste was not very close.. But it was nice and I enjoyed having it !!

And I would definitely bake the Tangzhong bread, maybe some time in the coming week. Yup, I will post that too. And now without further mumbling, on to my experience :)

Adapted from: Cornercafe

Yield : 1 loaf (23*10*10)

Consume: Best within 3-4 days

Storage: May be frozen to keep longer, defrost before serving

I Used:

For Scalded Flour:

Bread flour     -  100 gm (I used coarse wheat & rye flour) Boiling water  -  100 ml

Main Dough:

Bread flour	-	350 gm (I used coarse wheat & rye flour)
Milk powder	-	20 gm/2 tbsp
Caster sugar	-	35 gm
Salt	-	5 gm/1 tsp
Instant yeast	-	8 gm
Lukewarm water	-	200 ml (adjust as required)
Butter	-	35 gm (chopped into small pieces at room temperature)

The Way:

Scalded Flour:

1. Take bread flour in a bowl. Add the boiling hot water all at once over the flour and stir quickly with a fork until fully combined. There should be no more visible dry flour & it should be a doughy clumpy mixture
2. Set aside for 5 minutes for the dough cluster to fully absorb the heat and the moisture
3. Cover with cling film and let it cool to room temperature (Takes about ½ - 1 hour)

For the Main Dough:

• Sift bread flour, milk powder, caster sugar and salt onto the working surface
• Add instant dry yeast and mix well 
• Make a well in the flour mixture and add the scalded flour mixture
• Then gradually add just enough lukewarm water to form into a slightly sticky, soft dough 
• Knead for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic
• During this kneading, the dough also needs to be thrown onto the working surface once every few minutes to improve the dough structure
• You can pick up the dough to about head-high and throw it down onto the working surface 10 to 20 times, every few minutes between kneading

• Knead in butter until incorporated
• Form the dough into a round ball and place in a large greased bowl and cover with a cling film
• Allow the dough to rise until double in size (1st proofing)
• This will take about 1 hour in warm weather, longer in winter months
• To test if the dough has risen properly, dip a finger into bread or plain flour and poke down into the center of the dough as far as your finger will go and pull out again – the hole should remain if it is ready. If the dough springs back, then it is not ready, continue to prove further.
• Once the dough is ready, roll it out into a long oval shape. Divide it into three equal portions

• Take the first portion and using a rolling pin roll it up (Pic 4). Then roll up from the short end like a Swiss roll (Pic 5 & 6)

• Continue the same rolling process with the other two portions of the dough
• Place the rolled-up dough into the oiled bread loaf mould (23 cm (L) x 10 cm (W) x 10 cm (H))

• Cover loosely and allow the dough to rise to almost the top of the tin, which is the secnd proofing (would take around 45 minutes - 1 hour)  
• Once proofed, bake at 175°C in a preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until golden brown

Cheers,
Chitz